James Taylor did not enjoy the happiest of seasons in 2012, for all that he made his Test debut for England. Having moved from Leicestershire to Nottinghamshire after being advised he needed to play First Division cricket to further his international ambitions, he struggled to adjust to both the higher quality bowling and the lively Trent Bridge pitches, his 608 championship runs including only one century and one half-century.

Even so it was a surprise when the 23-year-old was not included in England's 2013 performance squad announced earlier this month. While he would no doubt deny the omission has served to concentrate his mind, there was a noticeable determination about his batting here and it was rewarded with a century that put Nottinghamshire in complete control.

It took some time coming, though. Resuming on 67, Taylor faced 77 balls in the morning session and scored 26 runs, with no boundaries among them. At the other end matters were more eventful, thanks primarily to Stuart Broad, who for a few overs looked every inch the all-rounder he aspires to be.

A glorious straight drive back past the bowler, a dismissive pull to midwicket and a crashing back-foot drive to the extra cover boundary were a reminder how much ability the tall left-hander has with the bat. The purple patch was brief, however. Shortly after being dropped three times in as many overs, another skied pull saw Tim Groenewald finally hold on.

Taylor remained unruffled and reached his century soon after lunch. Coming off 265 balls, it was comfortably the slowest of the 14 first-class hundreds he has scored but may prove to have been one of the most important.

Facing a first-innings deficit of 187, Derbyshire could have done without losing two wickets for 24. Billy Godleman was clearly nonplussed to be given out leg-before to Luke Fletcher, the umpire believing it had hit pad before the thick edge that saw the ball squirt away on the leg side, but Wes Durston could have no such complaints after being trapped on the back foot by Harry Gurney.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul and the captain, Wayne Madsen, did their best to stabilise the innings with a stand of 63 for the third wicket but Fletcher had Chanderpaul caught behind in the 41st over for 57 and Madsen's obdurate three-hour 47 was ended when he was trapped lbw by Gurney 30 balls later.

Ross Whiteley soon fell to Samit Patel's left-arm spin after scoring only four, leaving Derbyshire five wickets down and in need of another 44 runs just to make Nottinghamshire bat again on Saturday.